Profiles in Non-courage

Mitch McConnell was elected to the United States Senate in 1984, the year Ronald Reagan won the presidency by almost 20-million votes and an electoral vote margin of 525 to 13. Mitch’s campaign slogan against Democrat Walter Dee Huddleston was “Switch to Mitch.” That should have told the nation something about the man that Kentucky would send to Congress for the next 34 years—a man who would win future elections with the catchy “Repeal and Replace.” No one likes meaningless but catchy slogans more than Republicans.

The fact that this slogan only garnered him a plurality of 5200 votes out of more than 1,8-million cast (0.04%) tells us something else about the man who would one day become Senate Majority Leader.

Mitch has been a voice in Congress through the Iran/Contra Affair, two Iraq Wars, the 9/11 attack by terrorists on the Twin Towers, the S & L debacle of 1988, and the Great Recession of 2008—all of them events occurring under Republican presidents, as well as the tax cuts of Reagan, Bush, and Trump. Don’t let anyone fool you, tax cuts help the rich more than anyone else.

He was there for the Republican’s 6-year investigations of the Clinton’s during Bill Clinton’s presidency, and the fruitless and seemingly endless investigation of Hillary Clinton for the Benghazi attack.

He was there when Obama’s administration opened the door for 15-million Americans to receive previously unavailable healthcare insurance and has spent the last decade trying to take that insurance away.

This man has been in Washington for all the big events, all the momentous decisions, all the bitter struggles. So what does he call his proudest moment?

The Man Who Wrote Letters—and did evil deeds

No one is born a killer. Situations and events in a society growing angrier by the day can turn an otherwise peaceful person violent. 

Construction was about to begin on a building project that would not only saddle the town with unfathomable debt, but would forever transform the quiet little town in ways only a few could imagine.

Public protests and letter writing campaigns had failed to stop this crooked scheme because the corrupt individuals behind it were motivated by their own greed and an utter disregard for the opinions of others. The town’s newspaper, against the project from the start, railed against it regularly on its editorial page, but no one reads newspapers anymore.

Public protests and letter writing campaigns had failed to stop this crooked scheme because the corrupt individuals behind it were motivated by their own greed and an utter disregard for the opinions of others. The town’s newspaper, regularly railed against the project on its editorial page, but no one reads newspapers anymore.

The letter writer had paid his dues, played by the rules. He recalled a time when that was enough, but those days were long gone. In his mind, that world didn’t exist anymore.

He accepted change, welcomed progress. Something different was happening in his community. Values that had once been cornerstones of society were being destroyed by a weak mayor and his corrupt cronies.

The few who tried to speak truth to power were met with apathy and ignored by citizens, who actually envied the successful and flamboyant businessmen who were scamming them. The question on everyone’s lips: Would anyone step up to stop the corruption?

Finally, one man did step forward to answer the call.

Now the question became, “Could anyone stop him?”

The Man Who Wrote Letters—and did evil deeds

  My third novel, The Man Who Wrote Letters—and did evil deeds, is in its final proof stage and will be coming out in a few weeks. 

  The crime mystery takes place in the fictional town of Harrington, Massachusetts and centers on an unpopular building project.

    We pick up the story when the body of a key figure   is discovered one morning just as construction is about to commence. The ensuing events and  investigation are revealed through the eyes of the young journalist assigned to cover it.